02 - Baptism: Prefigured in the Old Testament
New Creation
- The Prophets announced that God, at the end of time, would undertake a new creation.
- “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind." (Isaiah 65:17)
- The New Testament shows that this new creation is already accomplished in Christ through the Mystery of Baptism
- "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Primordial Waters of Genesis
- "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light." (Genesis 1:1-3)
- "Then God said, 'Let the waters bring forth reptiles having life [of living souls], and winged creatures flying above the earth in the firmament of heaven', and it was so." (Genesis 1:20)
- Two Characteristics of the Primordial Water are Reproduced by Baptism
- Brings Forth Life
- Sanctified by the Holy Spirit
- Water that Brings Forth Life
- "First of all, O man, you should have reverence for the antiquity of the waters as a primordial element" ... " Once the elements of the world were set in order, when it was to be given inhabitants, it was the primordial waters which were commanded to produce living creatures. The primordial water brought forth life, so that no one should be astonished that in Baptism the waters are able to give life." (Tertullian - Baptism, 2)
- Water Sanctified by the Holy Spirit
- "The Spirit of God was carried over the waters, He Who was to recreate the baptized. The Holy One was carried over that which was holy, or, rather, over that which could receive holiness from Him Who was carried. It is thus that the nature of water, sanctified by the Spirit, received the capability of itself becoming sanctifying. This is why all waters, by reason of their ancient original prerogative, may obtain the sacrament of sanctification by the invocation of God." (Tertullian - Baptism, 2)
- "You have seen water. But all water does not heal, if the Spirit has not descended and consecrated that water." (Ambrose, De Sacr. 1, 15)
- Link to the Waters of the Jordan
- "The indivisible and ineffable Trinity, foreseeing from eternity the fall of human nature, at the same time as It brought from nothing the substance of water, prepared for men the healing which would be given in the waters. This is the reason why the Holy Spirit, in being carried upon the waters, is shown to us as making them holy from this moment and as communicating to them their fecundity. With this we must connect the fact, and it is an important one, that at the moment of the baptism of Jesus, the Holy Spirit came down upon the waves of the Jordan and rested on them" (XXXIX, 692 C).
- As the Holy Spirit, hovering over the primordial waters, brought forth from them the first creation, so also the Holy spirit, hovering over the waters of the Jordan, brought forth from them the second creation; and it is this second creation to which the baptized person is born in the waters consecrated by the descent of the Holy Spirit.
Noah's Ark (Deluge)
- "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:18-21)
- Sinfulness Destroyed
- New Creation (One Just Man is saved to be the first-born of a new human race)
- "God has said in Isaiah to Jerusalem: 'I saved you in the deluge of Noah.' By this which God said was meant that the mystery of saved men appeared in the deluge. For righteous Noah, along with the other mortals at the deluge, i.e., with his own wife, his three sons and their wives, being eight in number, were a symbol of the eighth day, wherein Christ appeared when He rose from the dead, for ever the first in power. For Christ, being the first-born of every creature, became again the chief of another race regenerated by Himself through water, and faith, and wood, containing the mystery of the cross; even as Noah was saved by wood when he rode over the waters with his household. Accordingly, when the prophet says, 'I saved you in the times of Noah,' as I have already remarked, he addresses the people who are equally faithful to God, and possess the same signs. For when Moses had the rod in his hands, he led your nation through the sea. And you believe that this was spoken to your nation only, or to the land. But the whole earth, as the Scripture says, was inundated, and the water rose in height fifteen cubits above all the mountains: so that it is evident this was not spoken to the land, but to the people who obeyed Him: for whom also He had before prepared a resting-place in Jerusalem, as was previously demonstrated by all the symbols of the deluge; I mean, that by water, faith, and wood, those who are afore-prepared, and who repent of the sins which they have committed, shall escape from the impending judgment of God." (St Justin Martyr - Dialogue with Trypho, 138)
Covenant and Incorporation into God's People
Circumcision
- Adoption into God's Family
Salvation Through Water
Noah's Ark (Deluge)
- "When once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us - baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:20-21)
Crossing the Red Sea
- Salvation through water
- Destruction of devil
Crossing the Jordan
Cleansing and Consecration
Ritual Washings
- Cleansing of Impurity & Uncleanness
Naaman Washing in the Jordan
- 2 Kings 5